ST. LOUIS • More than 100 students protested outside Vashon High School Friday morning demanding a better education at a place with many obstacles to learning.
They stood along the south side of Cass Avenue and complained of the high turnover of teachers and the absence of their principal — both of which have hurt classroom instruction, they said. They described substitute teachers acting more as baby sitters. Students are getting C’s just by showing up to class.
“We want to earn a diploma instead of a diploma being given to us,†said Alfred Montgomery, the senior who organized the protest. “We want to be heard. ... We want the kind of education they’re getting at Gateway and CA,†he said, referring to Gateway STEM High School and Clyde C. Miller Career Academy.
Beside Montgomery stood a group, most of them juniors and seniors, who say they’re frustrated by the classroom disruptions and the lack of teaching at Vashon, in the high-poverty Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood. They chanted “No more subs!†Some carried signs reading “We need teachers†and “Treat us like students not prisoners.†As the school day began for more than 400 students inside the building, they were there to draw attention to their concerns.
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“We don’t have homework. We barely have classwork,†said Nekiyah Bass, a senior.
“I’m trying to go to college without a bunch of remedial classes,†said Jessica Moye, a junior. “It will be hard to do that. We don’t get as much as the others.â€
The “others†she was referring to are the higher-performing magnet and choice high schools in ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ Public Schools. A common refrain among Vashon protesters was the feeling that their school falls to the bottom of the priority list when it comes to attention from the district’s central office. Vashon, for example, does not offer calculus. It was the only high school in the district last year that offered no advanced placement courses, though this year there is AP English.
Even so, the school is among those that Superintendent Kelvin Adams is sending more resources to in the form of high-dosage tutoring and additional counselors. The district’s transformation plan targets the lowest-performing schools, including the district’s three comprehensive high schools — Vashon, Roosevelt and Sumner.
This has been unnoticed by the students. They say that when Principal Terry Houston stopped coming to work earlier this month, fights began to escalate and teachers began leaving. They say substitute teachers have been playing movies to fill time in class.
Getting Houston back to work was one of the students’ demands.
“Nobody can handle Vashon like Mr. Houston could,†Montgomery said. “We want Mr. Houston here. We want Mr. Houston back.â€
Teacher turnover is high in ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ Public Schools. And “Subs are a problem everywhere,†district spokesman Patrick Wallace said. He suggested that the students’ claims were exaggerated. District data show that just four teaching vacancies exist at Vashon, and 33 certified teachers are employed there. Three teachers called in sick on Thursday and Friday.
Vashon, with 651 students, is one of the lowest-performing high schools in Missouri. Its ACT composite score was 13.9 last year. The graduation rate was 55 percent, up from 43 percent in 2011.
“These kids have a legitimate reason to be out here,†said Alderman Anthony Bell, who serves the 3rd Ward. “They want a great education. That’s what they want, and that’s what they need.â€
Adams visited the school Friday morning. He met seniors not involved in the protests. He told them a new principal would start on Monday, a district spokesman said. And then Adams met with Montgomery, along with two members of the district’s disempowered elected board, David Jackson and Susan Jones, and Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ´´.
Montgomery returned to the protest area about 20 minutes later to tell the students that he’d gotten some promising assurances from Adams regarding teachers. On Monday, a student advisory board would get off the ground. But Houston wouldn’t be returning.
Houston had been in the building earlier in the morning, telling staff that he was leaving Vashon for personal reasons.
“It’s his decision,†Montgomery told classmates, holding back tears.
Nasheed stood beside him and congratulated the students for bringing attention to issues that needed addressing at Vashon. Now it was time to refocus.
“This is your education,†she said. “If you’re not educated you will be incarcerated.â€
She urged them to engage in a “silent walk-in†and return to class. Montgomery got the students on board. And two hours after the protest began, it was over. One by one, they re-entered the building.
Montgomery told his classmates that they’d made a big difference. He later said, however, that if assurances don’t result in actions to improve Vashon, there would be another protest in mid-October. Next time, he said, it would be at the district’s central office.
